Daniel Nichanian/Bolts:
How the GOP Megabill Would Turbocharge Local Immigration Enforcement
Congress is pouring tens of billions of dollars into more immigration detention, private jails, and border operations, plus new ICE partnerships with local police and sheriffs.
$171 billion: That’s the gigantic amount that the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the package designed to advance President Trump’s agenda that Congress adopted on Thursday, would pour into federal immigration enforcement, according to researchers at the American Immigration Council.
The bill would massively scale up immigration detention facilities to the tune of $45 billion over five years, help recruit thousands of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and devote $47 billion to building a border wall, more than three times what the first Trump administration spent on the wall, plus billions more for conducting operations at the border—all on top of funds that Congress has already appropriated to ICE and other federal agencies.
And it would rain money—at least $14 billion—on local law enforcement departments to incentivize them to partner with federal authorities and serve as a force multiplier for ICE.
New York Times:
How Republicans Re-engineered the Tax Code
The product of years of Republican effort, the American tax code now blends traditional supply-side economics with President Trump’s populist 2024 campaign promises.
The tips provision, while ultimately only a sliver of the sprawling package that lawmakers passed this week, marked an important evolution in how the Republican Party, long dedicated to lowering taxes, has approached that goal. Rather than the type of systematic re-examination of the tax code that took place in 2017, the new Republican bill introduces a series of novel, populist and temporary cuts that Mr. Trump cooked up during the 2024 campaign to try to win the support of key constituencies.
At the same time, even as Mr. Trump’s return to office pointed the party’s tax agenda in a more populist direction, the new bill is in many ways the apotheosis of a traditionally conservative, supply-side philosophy. Once Mr. Trump signs the legislation, which he is expected to do on Friday, many of the tax cuts made in 2017 will be the law of the land for the foreseeable future, rather than just temporary features.
Norm Ornstein/The Contrarian:
The American people are driven by fairness and decency
Everyone who has a heart and conscience needs to rail against indecency if we are to retain any semblance of our American ideals.
Fairness is a watchword now because it was a core issue in 2024, exploited by the Trump campaign against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. First, it was transgender athletes. To many, it was puzzling that an issue involving a tiny share of athletes would be the subject of an overwhelming campaign message. To be sure, it played on a broader anti-trans phobia. And it got farcical, especially when right-wing swimmer Riley Gaines became famous over her non-stop campaign built on the fact that she tied for fifth with a transgender swimmer but got the sixth-place trophy on the podium.
But, fundamentally, the anti-trans athlete attack was about fairness, and it resonated with voters. Democrats who did not want to sacrifice anyone for temporary political advantage supported trans athletes as a matter of fairness and decency were easy to portray as being too woke to recognize the perceived unfairness.
Democrats and Harris were similarly hurt over student loan forgiveness. The idea that those who had worked hard to pay off their student loans or who worked during college to avoid taking out loans got no benefit, while those in the right place at the right time got taxpayers to forgive much of the loans they had incurred did not sit right with many voters. Like the notch-baby controversy, it rankled those who missed out because of the calendar or circumstance, and they greatly outnumbered those who got relief from crushing debt.
Paul Waldman/The Cross Section:
Why They Did It
Their budget bill is terrible politics for Republicans. But there's something greater at stake for them.
So why are they doing this? One can certainly imagine a less radical version of this bill, one that moved in the same direction but not so far and fast, much as the legislation they passed in Trump’s first term did. That kind of bill might not be a political winner, but it wouldn’t be such a huge loser either. Why not go that route?
They’re not giving away their shot
The answer is that this isn’t about the politics, it’s about the substance. You don’t like weather-vane politicians, always checking the polls to see how they should vote? Well here you go. They are willing to take the political risk, even the certainty of future defeat, because they believe so strongly in what this bill does.
They despise Medicaid and have contempt for everyone who uses it. The same goes for SNAP, aka food stamps. They desperately want to cut taxes for the wealthy, and always have. They don’t just want to roll back Biden-era climate policies, they want to destroy the entire green energy and manufacturing sectors of the economy. Their hearts flutter excitedly at the sight of a gang of masked thugs pummeling a landscaper or arresting a 6-year-old with leukemia; the thought of spending $150 billion so ICE can seize millions of immigrants and cart them off to a network of brutal detention centers fills them with joy.
That’s just part of what’s in the bill, but the point is that this is the fulfillment of their fondest policy wishes. If it costs them their House majority and maybe even their Senate majority as well (a long shot, but not impossible), they’re willing to do it. Because they believe in it.
Kim Wehle/zeteo:
'Everyone Is at Risk': Trump and His Cronies Obliterate the Rule of Law
There's nothing hyperbolic about what just happened in DC.
The unraveling of the rule of law in the United States is almost complete. Not only is there evidence indicating that Department of Justice officials lied to a federal judge, floated saying “fuck you” to court orders, and fired a star DOJ lawyer for refusing to play along, but the far-right majority of the Supreme Court – in a ruling that has been widely distorted as mere procedural housekeeping – just effectively suspended the Constitution’s limits for presidents.
If this seems hyperbolic, please read on.
Arden Yum/Persuasion:
Reports of Gen Z’s Lameness Are Greatly Exaggerated
A recent college graduate dispels generational myths.
It’s funny to think that I became an adult in an environment so siphoned off from reality. The speeches at my commencement ceremony kept referring to “the real world,” and how we’d have to retain the curiosity, grace, and compassion we learned at Yale when we faced the harshness of life. I did feel very protected within the ivy-laced, ironclad gates, where only a student ID could grant someone permission to pass through. I felt understood by the people around me—my peers, who were in the same stage of life, and my professors, who were well-practiced in dealing with our awkward, trying, burgeoning personhood. As I step out into a less forgiving place (New York City), I want to address some of the many misconceptions about my generation in hopes of forging mutual understanding.
Cliff Schecter on Lisa Murkowski’s nonsense:
